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CONCERT REVIEW: All Systems Were Go At Worcester's DCU Center

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  • CONCERT REVIEW: All Systems Were Go At Worcester's DCU Center

    CONCERT REVIEW: ALL SYSTEMS WERE GO AT WORCESTER'S DCU CENTER
    By CHAD BERNDTSON
    For The Patriot Ledger

    The Patriot Ledger, MA
    Aug 31 2005

    System of a Down snared its willing crowd right from the get-go,
    its wacky, speed metal wares and blistering, heavily political power
    rock firing on all cylinders for close to 90 minutes at Worcester's
    DCU Center.

    The Armenian-descended and L.A.-raised foursome goes for the jugular
    on all fronts, especially in concert: sizzling guitar entreaties,
    a blinding stage display (complete with strobe lights, a distortion
    mirror and trippy, faux-goth graphic elements), a frontman, Serj
    Tankian, in the great tradition of flamboyant, cocksure crowd
    galvanizers, and an anti-war and anti-establishment bent that they
    stick to and mine for satire, comedy, drama and poignancy, often in
    the same song.

    Whether it was their brutal "Sad Statue," with lines like "You and
    me will all go down in history / with a sad Statue of Liberty / and a
    generation that didn't agree" slathered atop pulse-pounding rhythms,
    or the ferocious "Kill Rock 'n' Roll" or the pointedly critical
    "B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs)," or a cheeky riff on size matters
    called "Cigaro," or a brief, out-of-nowhere left turn into Neil Young's
    "My My, Hey Hey," they kept energy high and forward moving throughout.

    Ripping, mosh-inducing blast-offs like "Revenga" - whose chorus of
    "My sweet revenge / will be yours for the taking / It's in the making,
    baby" - were tough to deny where outright concert excitement was
    concerned, and if there's a drawback to the whole experience, it's
    that the rapidly shifting tempo changes and throttling freakouts get
    a bit repetitive when left so untethered.

    It will be interesting to see how System progresses in future albums.
    In previewing material from its upcoming "Hypnotize," the companion
    to this year's "Mesmerize," it hinted at expanding its melodic palette
    without dumbing down any of the lyrics or skimping on the theater.

    The Mars Volta's proclivity toward cacophonous freakouts makes them
    and System at the very least musical cousins, -- but their sound makes
    them quite an alternative: a space ride to psychedelic continuums
    compared to System's more down-to-earth skull-burrowing.

    It's all pretty weird, but searingly virtuosic, and the group's core
    members, the histrionic singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist
    Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, brought along enough percussion instruments
    and seemingly disparate noisemakers (synths, electronic flutes, MIDI
    saxophones, you name it) to make their 45-minute, four-song set feel
    like the ultimate in musical head trips.

    SYSTEM OF A DOWN/THE MARS VOLTA Saturday night at the DCU Center,
    Worcester.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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